Nautilus 2 liveaboard - The Maldives

[Wiggsy]

The Nautilus 2 looks to be a fine vessel indeed with a really goo dporice point, particularly when I plan to travel. Do any SBers have experience with this vessel. I've seen some nice videos and images, but would value a personal recommendation. Many thanks,

Alan

 

[mantajohn]

My experience of Nautilus 2 is a little out of date (about 4 years) - so may be inaccurate. But to try & help you - here it is....

The vessel itself is wonderful. The largest lob I have been on. Huge cabins, huge en-suites & enormous lounge/dining area. The food was also excellent. Good boat crew.

The diving set up was not my favourite, however. They only had 1 1/2 DM for 20+ guests. Also the dhoni was no where near the standard of the lob. Crucially it only had 2 cramped exits (jump points). The shortage of DMs & the time it took everyone to jump from the dhoni meant that dropping the group into current did not work at all well.

Consequently, we only did the 'pretty' sites & omitted the 'high energy' sites. So not much in the way of pelagics on view. Also the compressor only did 180 bar fills - so short dives.

I hope they have fixed the dive operation over the intervening years. If so, it would be a wonderful lob.

Cheers

John

 

[Wiggsy]

Thanks Mantajohn....I notice that their newer website has a different Dhoni to what I see in the older videos, which featured a very traditional looing vessel with a tall raised curved prow. The newer dhoni looks much better. But you've given me something to check up on and negotiate about. Should be a max of one dive guide to 8 divers - I can insist on that. Dive guides should not be hard to come by in The Maldives.

---------- Post added November 12th, 2014 at 03:59 AM ----------

Actually Mantajohn - looking at this nifty video from a month or so back, they appear to have a much better dhoni now with four fairly good exit points - looks to have been upgraded and is a larger vessel overall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV20nkqSHUQ